Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
I live in Fremont CA in my mom's house. My mother had a reverse mortgage and passed away last year. I contacted the bank as required and asked for the extensions as required while we got probate settled so we could sell. The last request required a phone call and two letters (1 from me and 1 from the probate lawyer) saying the house was still in probate. Supposedly on 8/10/2013 the bank called my house. No caller id showed the name (only unknown caller or number) and the company policy is to NOT leave voice messages. Apparently it has the policy of sending nothing in writing either. The letter sent by my lawyer was the wrong document, which is what the collection department told me was required but not what the acquisitions department wanted! The bank made no effort to contact her by phone or writing. So they started foreclosure proceedings and filed them 9/15/2013. I found out when a realtor called me 9/19/2013 @ 8:30am.
Now my question is, is the way they did this foreclosure really legal? Shouldn't they have left a message/written me or my lawyer regarding this error? When I first contacted the bank, they said nothing could be done until probate was settled; the collections department says you have one year only and then they foreclose, they also said the lawyer needed to send a letter; the acquisition department says they needed a probate court document; both the collections and acquisitions departments do NOT leave voice messages. None of them communicate with each other. So what is legal? What are my rights? Especially since I do not pay the mortgage company anything. They do collect their fees and insurance payments every month out of the equity in the house. It's not because they aren't getting paid they're foreclosing but because they failed to contact me and/or my lawyer when a problem arose.
3 Answers from Attorneys
You are represented by an attorney and need to direct this question to your attorney. If she does not know the answer, she can research it for you or contact a colleague. This may sound harsh, but no lawyer is going to want to provide advice when you are already represented.
Scott Jordan has given you good legal advice.
I don't entirely agree with Mr. Jordan and Mr. Waid. If you are not receiving adequate representation from your present attorney, there is nothing wrong with reaching out to other attorneys. The simple answer to your question is that IF what you THINK happened, happened, and they have commenced foreclosure without written notices, then there is something wrong. You also refer to the foreclosure as if it has been completed. If so, you may be too late to do anything. If they have only STARTED foreclosure, but the sale has not been held, then you have time to act. You really need either to sit down with your present attorney and get this dealt with, or talk to another attorney directly about taking over the situation, or associating with your probate attorney to handle the real estate foreclosure issues that she may not be familiar with. Time can be very short in foreclosure proceedings and you are not going to get this solved over the internet.
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